Way back in 1935, a group of fairly young people...Christians...got together and for a small sum of money bought the church building that stands at the corner of Henry St. and Highland Ct. Dan River, Inc. loaned them the money to buy the church and over a few years, the loan was repaid. The church was known as The Pilgrim Holiness Church until 1968 when it merged with the Wesleyan Church.

Since 1970 we have had many pastors, among them the Rev. Rogers Shockley, Rev. Randy Watts, Rev. Richard Heffner(interim pastor for close to two years), Wade Rogers and from July of 2002, Glen Gentry. When Wade left, the district superintendent decided that since he "couldn't find us a pastor", (I learned later that he probably could have if he wanted to)that Gentry would pastor our church and the Gethsemane Church on Dula St( where he had been the pastor for about a year).

This was called "the experiment" and was supposed to be tried for a year and then reviewed and if we didn't want to continue, the D.S. would again "try" to get us a pastor. Well, the year ended in July 2003, but nobody asked the congregation of Emmanuel how we thought it was going or if we wanted to continue or try for a new pastor. In the meantime, we had been meeting together on Sunday nights, one month at our church and the next month at Gethsemane. We had gotten to know the people...we even joined together to put on a really good Christmas play.

The older members knew that what was on the minds of Gentry and the D.S. was merging the two churches. Well, in July of 2003, we had a board meeting and Gentry brought up the merger and told our board that we really needed to merge, that we would sell both churches and get a centrally located building and give it a new name.While we weren't overly thrilled, we didn't really object to that plan. What we found out later at a joint board meeting was that he hadn't said anything to the other church about selling "their" property and we were informed by one of their board that they weren't selling their church!

Anyway, they proposed a plan wherein we would sell Emmanuel church, parsonage ,parking lot, and five extra lots behind the church......would meet at Gethsemane, change that name to something else, would meet there until we GREW in number and THEN would sell that property. My concern with that is that while we have lost members, most of ours were through death. When Gentry came to Gethsemane, they had lots of members and probably 45/50 youth and a youth leader who was really involved. I don't know what happened, but the youth leader left and so did the youth and a whole lot of other members. So now, their attendence on Sunday is about the same as ours. Why does anyone think we're gonna grow? Especially in that neighborhood?

We're having a joint meeting of the members this Sunday at a neutral location to vote. The pastor seems to think this is a done deal and has already said that the first Sunday in May we'll meet at our "new" church.

We haven't met with the D.S. in over two years and he has the mistaken assumption that ALL the members of Emmanuel want to merge. However, he was informed not so long ago that only three members were really gung-ho to merge(and these are three ladies who just love the pastor to death!)

So....what's to happen? My guess is that the merger will pass, the name will be changed(but in all our minds it will still be Gethsemane), our people.....not all of them....will go up there and they will conviently forget the plan to sell that building and buy or build a new one.

So far, I don't know whether I'll vote for or against...whether I'll go up there or not. It's a good little drive and it's all I can do to get to Emmanuel on time on Sunday mornings. What with trying to get anywhere from 1 to 4 kids up, dressed and out the door.....depending on who spends the night on Sat.
Oh, well, I've been praying about it and I know God has a plan for our lil church and for the other one.....Who, but God, knows what will happen????

P.S. Our Easter contata is composed of members from both churches, plus a couple from Shelton Mem. Presbyterian across the street from me. If I could just spell it, I might go THERE!!!!